1D2 PAINT

[DAVO808]

Hi, i need to do a few touch ups on the car and had it mixed from auto paint uk, its turned out a terrible colour match and it looks worse than the damage that was there before i started!

anyone every tried the Halfords aerosols and is the 1D2 (thunder grey i believe) actually sold by them?  if anyone has any experience of this would really appreciate some help, cheers, Dave.

[oldcodger]

Matching paints seems to be an black art, probably way beyond the diyer.

I have 1C0 Silver and tried both Halfords and Toyotas spray cans with poor matching results.

I was just trying to respray the door rubber scuff strips which I had badly scratched, but neither gave a visually good match, probably Halfords was nearer, but it was a pain to use because the colour coat can kept spitting and deposting bits, so causing another rub down and spray.

Even now after 10 months the different is obvious, but when I took it for a mot I asked the tester  what he thought, in the open he could see the difference but when he took it inside the workshop they could not see any difference, different lights etc.

Some suggest even the direction you spray can effect the final appearance.

A forum member 'Sam Loves her Toyota' posted that she had her silver rear end resprayed professionally but was such a poor match they had to respray again etc.

Sorry I cannot offer anything more positive !

[RazzerRazor]

I'd see how much chips away etc would charge you. Only cos if it's not right they will do it again! Sometimes with the paint you buy, primer taping up and everything. You time, it doesn't workout that much cheaper. And they come to you👍

[oldcodger]

Just as a follow on, in the July 17 edition of Car Mechanics there is an article about car spray paints  and in their  DIY Spray Can Painting Tips , the key bit -

" Light Metalics ?  Forget it.  Silver is impossible to blend in successfully, light metalic greens, blues and golds are nightmare.  Get it done professionally "

[mickburkesnr]

One of my cars is metallic silver, and I decided to use the car to move a wall I didn't like - well it's better than saying I was in a mood and misjudged where the car was in relation to the wall. It scratched the paint off the front of the car, which was all plastic anyway.

Went to Halfords and bought their paint, and I think to be successful you need to do light even coats of the paint. That's what I did, and I ended up with a good colour match. The only thing I couldn't do was the clear coat, it never worked out properly. So I ended up throwing the car to a car painter my friend knew. 

But I will say that the Halfords paint, in my one experience, has been a good colour match. The price, however, wasn't a good fit for my wallet.